iS8 Journal ok Comi'Akativ^k Neukology. 



upon the body, the laws of heredity, and the efVect of 

 acquired characters and environs of the parent upon the off- 

 spring. It is doubtless to the more or less skillful (often un- 

 conscious) utilization of the elements of truth contained 

 in these principles that the apparent success of phrenology 

 is to be ascribed. 



So important did the practice of physiognomy become, 

 that in the time of George II. Parliament passed an act 

 condemning all persons pretending to skill in physiog- 

 nomy as rogues and vagabonds and rendering them liable 

 to public whipping and detention in the house of cor- 

 rection. Yet phrenology, with less of fact and no less of 

 danger, claimed the adherence of no less a thinker than 

 Comte, and Gall was given a nitch in the temple of Fame in 

 close proximity to the critical philosopher. 



While the appeal to nature has produced good results, 

 and Gall's efforts have led to such works as Bell's Anatomy 

 of Expression and have prepared the public for better things, 

 it may be that they have long hindered scientific investi- 

 gation in this fascinating field and account for the fact, that 

 aside from Charles Darwin almost no capable observer has 

 ventured to discuss the physiology of expression. 



While Florens must be honered as the pathfinder in the 

 experimental aspect of neurology, it must be remembered 

 that although he recognized the cerebrum as the seat of the 

 will and perception, he did not admit any direct relation to 

 voluntary motions and sensations, but supposed the cerebrum 

 to act as a whole, every part participating in every function 

 with which the organ was endowed.(') 



Lorry, in 1760, had also suggested the non-participation 

 of the cerebrum in functions of sensation and motion. This 

 view, which was readily accepted as agreeing with psycho- 

 logical preconceptions, closed this field to investigation for 

 upwards of fifty years. 



I Florens. " Recherches experim. sur les propriet^!^ et les fonUons du systeme ner- 

 veux." 1824-1842. 



